Just in! CNN anchor Ali Velchi was on this flight and is reporting on take-off birds flew into right engine and the aircraft returned to JFK for an emergency landing. Velchi reporting mood on board was very calm. (flightaware.com) Mais...

Ok so what I don't understand is why don't the airlines start equipping the turbines with blades so as to have a greater chance of avoiding this? I remember a long time ago when I watched a special on the 777 and they were testing its bird strike tolerance by throwing dead birds at the spinning engines which had blades on the turbines and it worked great. This aircraft did have the spirals already but why not improve the safety a bit?

I was at Kennedy Airport and actually saw the flames shooting out of the back of the engine. Interesting sight, scary for the ones on board. People in the terminal were wondering what was happening because the plane disappeared behind terminal 1. Luckily the pilots did a good job.

About the picture I posted above: I just arrived at Delta lounge when a colleague pointed this out.I could not find any record for another incident at JFK on Wed. 18th involving a Delta flight do I assumed that this aircraft was flight 1603.I do have other pictures but none one them is good enough to identify the aircraft registration # for sure... What I could read on the picture is N180DN but this does not seem to match : N180DN is supposed to be a 767-200. Let me know if you want me to post the tail section in original resolution :)

Not from the picture. The FlightAware info said it was a 757. I was told it was ship 6806 and have a list of the ship numbers. Either the info given to me was wrong or that is the wrong aircraft. The photo is a 767. It has a tail skid. 757's don't have tail skids.

Not the right aircraft. Here is the article from ABC news with audio. You can tell that it was a 757.http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/delta-flight-makes-emergency-landing-after-bird-strike/